Universities oppose new super board

SANTA FE (AP) - Presidents of New Mexico's six fouryear universities say they're opposed to the creation of a "super board" of regents to replace each school's board.

It would mean more bureaucracy, not less, they said Thursday.

"The trend is in the opposite direction," Daniel Lopez, president of New Mexico Tech in Socorro, told the Commission on Higher Education. "A number of states with centralized systems are going back to independent boards. It's become such a bureaucratic mess that individual institutions can't get attention on individual issues important to them."

Commission executive director Bruce Hamlett said the idea of a super board surfaced over the past year in the Legislature's Higher Education Committee, chaired by Sen. Pauline Eisenstadt, D-Corrales.

Under Eisenstadt's proposal, Hamlett said, individual boards of regents would be consolidated.

University regents are appointed by the governor for staggered terms. University presidents report to the regents, who approve the schools' budgets and set overall policy.

Eisenstadt has suggested it would be a way of reducing duplication of services and improving quality and efficiency.

But Selimo Rael, president of New Mexico Highlands University, said a super board would create another level of bureaucracy.

"A more hands-on approach to serving students is needed," Rael said.

Everett Frost, president of Eastern New Mexico University, agreed.

"We think having a local board is a real advantage," said Frost, "because it allows for changes to occur.